
Mildred Weeks Wells’s Work on Airborne Transmission Could Have Saved Many Lives—If the Scientific Establishment Listened
Mildred Weeks Wells and her husband figured out that disease-causing pathogens can spread through the air like smoke
Honoring women at the forefront of science
Mildred Weeks Wells’s Work on Airborne Transmission Could Have Saved Many Lives—If the Scientific Establishment Listened
Mildred Weeks Wells and her husband figured out that disease-causing pathogens can spread through the air like smoke
Marie Curie’s Mentorship Led to Networks of Support for Female Scientists
Author Dava Sobel discusses how she discovered the many forgotten female scientists who were mentored by Marie Curie in early 20th-century Paris
Evangelina Rodríguez Led an Extraordinary Life as the Dominican Republic’s First Female Doctor
Born into poverty and abandoned by her parents, Andrea Evangelina Rodríguez Perozo rises from a life selling sweets in the street to become the first female Dominican doctor in 1911
This Professor Is Training the Public to Echolocate
Neuroscientist Lore Thaler speaks about her efforts to make echolocation training more accessible
What Was It like to Be a Female Doctor during the Ming Dynasty?
A Chinese medical textbook published in 1511 led to a novel about an all-but-forgotten female doctor who practiced during the Ming Dynasty
Trump’s DEI Purge Is Hitting NASA Hard
Space scientists within NASA and outside it feel betrayed by the Trump administration’s changes at the agency, which was known for promoting inclusion in science
What Is Implicit Bias, and How Might It Affect Your Next Medical Visit?
We talk to Cristina Gonzalez, a physician at New York University, who runs a lab that uses simulations to help medical professionals check their implicit bias at the exam room door.
The Untold Story of Marie Curie’s Network of Female Scientists
Marie Curie is well known for her chemistry achievements but less so for helping other women succeed in science
Debate Linguistics Reveals the Politics at Play in the 2024 Election
Linguist and sociophonetician Nicole Holliday analyzes the language used by candidates in the recent presidential and vice presidential debates
Obesity-Drug Pioneers Win Prestigious Lasker Award for Medical Science
Three scientists are honored for developing a class of blockbuster weight-loss drugs. Is a Nobel prize on the way?
The Devil in the Details, Chapter One: The Doctor Who Said No to Thalidomide
Starting with her rejection of an FDA application for thalidomide in 1960, physician and pharmacist Frances Oldham Kelsey took a stand against the now infamous drug
Remembering Lynn Conway, of the Conway Effect, Who Helped Launch the Computing Revolution
Lynn Conway, a trans woman and advocate for LGBTQ rights, was underappreciated and often underrecognized for her work in chip design
Meet the Unknown Female Botanists Who Established the Field of Ecological Restoration
Historian and ecologist Laura J. Martin rediscovers the female scientists who established ecological restoration in her book Wild by Design
Ada Lovelace’s Endnotes Foretold the Future of Computation
Ada Lovelace’s wisdom about the first general-purpose computer can be found buried in the appendix of another paper
Rosalind Franklin Deserves a Posthumous Nobel Prize for Co-discovering DNA Structure
Awarding Rosalind Franklin a Nobel Prize posthumously for her role in DNA discovery is the honorable—and scientific—thing to do
Who Was Alessandra Giliani, 14th-Century Teen Anatomist?
Was a teenager named Alessandra Giliani the Western world’s first female anatomist? In 14th-century Italy, women were strictly barred from medical research. One flouted that rule—disguised as a man.
The Little-Known Origin Story behind the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics
In 1949 physicist Chien-Shiung Wu devised an experiment that documented evidence of entanglement. Her findings have been hidden in plain sight for more than 70 years
The First Lady of Engineering: Lost Women of Science Podcast, Season 3, Episode 1
Yvonne Y. Clark, known as Y.Y. throughout her career, had a lifetime of groundbreaking achievements as a Black female mechanical engineer. The third season of the Lost Women of Science podcast begins at the start of her story, during her unconventional childhood in the segregated South
Meet the Woman Who Makes the James Webb Space Telescope Work
Jane Rigby, Webb’s operations project scientist, discusses how NASA plans to wring as much science as possible from the $10-billion observatory
Women Are Creating a New Culture for Astronomy
A new generation of scientists are challenging the biased, hierarchical status quo
Lost Women of Science Podcast: Season One, The Pathologist in the Basement
Lost Women of Science digs deep to uncover stories of scientists that have long been overlooked
Once Shunned in Antarctica, Female Scientists Are Now Doing Crucial Polar Research
Women are investigating critical climate crisis problems such as the stability of giant ice sheets
Astronomer Vera Rubin Taught Me about Dark Matter—and about How to Live Life
The groundbreaking scientist ushered in a revolution in how we think about the universe. She also lived by a set of principles that made her an exceptional human being
Sally Ride’s Enduring Legacy
America’s first woman in space worked to make STEM education more equitable and inclusive, with a special emphasis on encouraging participation by girls